At the end of each year, Instagram users love to find out their top nine most-liked pictures. But to mark the end of 2018 some are curating their own lists.
Instead of relying on the images most hearted by their followers, users are selecting alternative highlights – everything from major life milestones reached time spent with friends and just being happy.
One of the people creating her own collage is Emily Coxhead, founder of The Happy Newspaper. She explained: “Because most liked is nice but not real life or a true reflection of my year.”
Coxhead listed things such as her engagement, buying a house and writing a book. She added: “What a bloody year it’s been! It definitely hasn’t all been sunshine and rainbows but a huge amount of it has been super incredible.”
On Twitter other people were quick to agree that they were choosing their own memories over those that fit the online algorithm.
Liza said: “Instagram made me a top nine but it was the pictures that got the most likes and IDGAF about that. Here’s nine pictures that highlight my 2018 it was very hard to choose.”
She chose to focus on pictures with friends and family for her own top nine.
‘Love Island’ host Caroline Flack also took to her Instagram to explain how she was choosing to look beyond the Instagram images that got the most likes.
The 39-year-old told her 1.9 million followers that looking at her top nine gave her pause for thought: “Funny isn’t it. I look so happy except I know in four of those pictures I was dying inside.”
During filming of ‘Love Island’ in July, Flack confirmed reports she had called off her engagement to Andrew Brady, just two months after the pair announced it.
Flack added: “My top nine moments were not represented by these pictures but by things that happened and will stay in my heart forever.”
Journalist and mental health writer Hannah Jane Parkinson also posted an alternative top nine, which included pictures of her work achievements, travel highlights and her cat. The majority of her “most liked”, she said, were selfies, which are proven to receive more hearts on Instagram than non-selfies.
Instagram came under fire from users last week after a bug accidentally rolled-out an update to the photo-sharing app that was only meant to be shown to a select group of users.
The new feature, which updated without warning, allowed users to tap through regular posts, mimicking the way Instagram stories are viewed in what is presumably an attempt to mimic their success.